texas senator john cornyn is the new minority whip. and south dakota john thune now becomes the conference chairman. here's more from minority leader mitch mcconnell on the changes. >> well, good afternoon, everyone. welcome back. the american people have spoken. a week ago they decided in many ways to continue the status quo with divided government. we have a lot of big challenges confronting us here at the end of the cycle, but i would remind everyone that divided government sometimes has done very important things for the country. think of ronald reagan and tip o'neill reforming social security. ronald reagan and tip o'neill doing the last comprehensive tax reform. bill clinton and a republican congress doing a welfare reform and actually balancing the budget. so we look forward to making this divided government productive for the american people, and we have, of course, as everyone well knows, a lot of challenges here at the end of the year. i'll be meeting with the president and the other leadership on friday to talk about the way